


Warp;drive

by StarfleetTimeLord



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Steins;Gate
Genre: Also while this is set at approximately the time of Picard, It's not a direct Picard crossover so don't expect to see Rios or anything, Kurisu appears in the form of Amadeus, Next Gen and DS9 characters are gonna be all over the place though, So spoilers for both 0 and the original, This is basically a 0 fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:02:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23925067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarfleetTimeLord/pseuds/StarfleetTimeLord
Summary: After a copy of legendary World War III era terrorist Okabe Rintaro's memories is found at an archaeological site, they are uploaded into a comatose body in the year 2399. After interviews with historians and the Department of Temporal Investigations, he is tasked with helping to retrieve the Amadeus program from a heavily encrypted server on the same site. But is Amadeus safe with the synth ban in place? Crossposted on fanfiction.net which would not allow the semicolon in the title.
Relationships: Okabe Rintarou | Hououin Kyouma/Makise Kurisu
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

**June 3rd, 2399, Boseman Montana**

Okabe’s eyes opened slowly and focused slower, but his ears were already up, running, and receiving data.

“...could have had him awake two hours ago if we could have used a synth body. For that matter we could have had him awake two months ago. At least the one they sent over happens to look almost exactly like him. The odds on that have got to be-"

The unfamiliar voice, unfamiliar words, and blurred but still unfamiliar environment he found himself in urged caution; clearly something had gone wrong with the leap, even if he had no idea what. Okabe decided that now was not the time to let these people know he was awake.

“You know why we couldn’t use a synth Tom, and you know Daystrom would have cleared a body six months earlier if you hadn’t tried to convince them to clone one and made it look like we were trying to restart the Eugenics Wars.”

The first voice shot back, angrier now, but in the way of an old argument, never settled but never truly divisive

“We’re historical researchers for god’s sake Janet. I couldn’t restart the Eugenics Wars if I tried. Besides, Okabe wasn’t even involved in those, they ended when he was a child and they weren’t public knowledge until he’d been dead for twenty years. He wasn’t even aligned with Colonel Green, the closest equivalent during his lifetime. The fact that simple cloning conjures up the spectre of Khan Noonien Singh is-”

Whoever these people were then, they knew who he was, and he was, somehow, in the future. Far enough in the future that any more information he might glean from eavesdropping would be useless without context. He coughed theatrically and began to sit up.

“He’s awake!” cried Tom, pointing out the obvious despite having missed it for a good 30 seconds. “Mr. Okabe, my name is Tom Havelland, I’m a historical researcher at the Boseman World War III Institute. How do you feel?”

Okabe tried to raise his right hand to his head, but found it handcuffed to his bed.

“I apologize for the restraints, but Starfleet has you classified as dangerous. I told them you wouldn’t have any reason to hurt anyone in this context, but of course they wouldn’t listen to me. It’s only a precaution, and hopefully only a formality.”

Okabe noticed that for all his reassurances Havelland was sitting on the left side of his bed and well out of reach of his left hand.

“Tom, give him a minute to adjust. You’re throwing nothing but new information and names at him. Let him answer the question. How do you feel, Mr. Okabe?”

Okabe considered.

“All in all, fine. Perhaps a bit of a headache, and I’m a little thirsty.”

Tom handed him a glass of water that had been waiting on a table, doing his best to do so from as far away as humanly possible with an awkward stretchy lean.

“Now. What’s the last thing you remember?”

He considered again. This was clearly the future; Tom had said he was a historical researcher, and before he’d known Okabe was awake he’d referred to something not being public knowledge until he’d been dead for twenty years. Their treatment of him also heavily implied that they knew of his actions in World War III, meaning that the death Tom referred to must have been the one that awaited him in 2025, not the failed time leap. That put the year at 2045 at least, and made their affiliation and motives suspect. 

“I was taking part in a neurological experiment. An attempt to copy my memories.”

Strictly speaking, this was true. That version of the Phone Wave, let alone the time leap machine, was completely untested. He simply declined to mention that he’d been testing it by attempting to travel back in time and prevent the deaths of two of his closest friends.

“Who was conducting this experiment?”

“Hiyajo Maho, a researcher on something called Project Amadeus”

It was still best not to outright lie, at least not big lies. If need be, he could claim he was a test subject for another AI and the records had been destroyed during the war.

The researchers glanced at each other quickly, quickly enough that they probably hoped he hadn’t noticed, but that glance conveyed more confusion than anything else could have.

“Mr. Okabe, what year was this experiment conducted?”

“2011”

This was clearly not the response they had anticipated.

"What year is it now?"

They hesitated noticeably. That didn't tell him anything though; for anyone but him a leap of even twenty years would be an absurd bombshell.

"To be clear" Tom interjected "you have no memories from beyond 2011? No memories of the Valkyrie Cell? Your associates? World War III?"

"That can't be true." Janet said "Your consciousness was restored from a drive found at a World War III era digsite believed to be your base of operations circa 2036. The file was last accessed in 2036. Every piece of evidence points to it being your mind from 2036. Yet you claim you have, what, digital amnesia?"

"What year is it?"

"Janet, 2036...wasn't 2036 the year that-"

"WHAT YEAR IS IT?"

There was a moment of silence. Not stunned silence exactly, but charged, tense.

"2399. The year is 2399."

That silence was stunned.

"They're gone. They're all gone. After everything. Daru, Mayuri, Maho, Ruka, Feris. They've been gone for 350 years."

_ After everything I did, they're still all gone. Sacrificing Kurisu was for nothing. _

"We know this must be hard, especially if you're telling the truth about being from 2011" Tom said "but most of your friends survived the war. You may never see them again, but they lived long lives. And you were in most of them."

"Janet, if I'm right he really is from 2011. Remember how he disappeared in 2025? Everyone thought he was dead? I don't think it's a coincidence we found an old copy of his earlier memories that was last accessed the same year he came back with a vengeance."

_ Of course,  _ Okabe realized,  _ All I knew from Suzuha was that in the part of 2036 she came from, I’d been gone since 2025. Theoretically if I was braindead and they created a copy when I time leaped, overwriting my future self’s memories after that point wouldn’t cause a paradox. A forward time leap, in a way. _

Janet looked wary, but did not dismiss the idea outright.

“Record fragments from Project Amadeus did mention an Okabe. Kreitzer theorized that it might have been him, but no one’s ever been able to produce more than speculation until now. If his capacity in the project included memory scans the Valkyrie cell might have been able to track them down. But the technology needed to actually transfer it into a living brain...” she did something that may have been a shrug and may have been a shudder “we can barely do it  _ now.  _ Even thirty years ago Ira Graves was only able to copy himself into a positronic matrix, and that was incredibly unstable.”

“Excuse me” said Okabe “but this is rather a lot to take in. Could I perhaps have some time alone with the historical record to acclimate myself?”

Tom sighed. “Of course. We’d prepared to interview you about World War III anyway. If you have no memory of that we’ll need to come up with a whole new set of questions. Computer!”

There was a very computer-like beeping sound. 

“Ensure that Okabe Rintaro has full access to the Federation Historical Database, authorization Havelland Beta Z 12.”

\---------------

**Hey all! A few clarification notes before we get started:**

**First, for the purposes of this fic Star Trek takes place in the future of a Beta worldline due to the convenient overlap of World War III. Consequently, the version of Okabe appearing is for most intents and purposes the version of him from Steins;gate 0 and will be extremely spoiling for the entirety of that series as well as all of Steins;gate**

**Second, I am primarily familiar with Steins;gate as a dubbed anime which may cause some minor differences from what you remember if you are a sub or game fan (mostly in speech patterns or catchphrases). I am also not horribly familiar with Japanese culture and custom, and so you may find this unintentionally westernized a little bit. The one thing I am paying close attention to but may screw up is the surname coming first, since the example of the Bajorans makes me think the Federation would mostly honor that custom (although Sulu winds up being a weird thorn in the side of that idea).**

**Third, the early chapters may not be wholly indicative of where I want to take the plot. This is because the only two ways I could think of to get Okabe to the future were through a memory upload or by having the time machine from the very end of 0 wind up there which carried a whole bunch of problems. Since I went with the former, the only thing I could think of that would be a good reason for the Federation to spin him up was a combination of historical research and to try him for his actions in World War III. This means the early chapters (the first 3-5 probably) are going to focus on the Federation being suspicious of him and him doing historical research on everything that's happened. That being said, I've had a little bit of a plot breakdown in terms of where I want to take things after that, so the chapters after that may come slowly or not at all. If it helps, though, chapter two is already done save for a minor edit I need to make because I forgot Mayuri was supposed to be dead, and chapter three is very near done.**

**Fourth, I have seen Discovery and, quality aside, it is completely impossible to integrate it into the rest of the canon and I will therefore be completely ignoring it. It shouldn't actually come up, but Section 31 has a fair chance of showing up at some point and none of that garbage about them being an official division of Starfleet or public knowledge is going to touch this. I mean for god's sake they were clearly a secret organization in both Enterprise and DS9 and therefore both before and after Discovery, and you literally could have replaced every instance of Section 31 with Starfleet Intelligence and had the exact same show. It's like they went out of their way to be wrong. I'm sorry this just turned into a rant about Discovery's poor decision making. I could add a whole paragraph about how there shouldn't be holograms in the 23rd century, but that feels unnecessary. If you care, just pretend Discovery takes place in the future of an Alpha wordline and is therefore completely divorced from both this fic and trek canon.**

**Fifth, this is already posted on fanfiction.net as "Warp (semicolon) drive". I'm bringing it here both because it has received minimal attention there and because FF is...much worse than I remember it being. There may be some minor differences between this version and the FF, at least for the first 7 chapters. Usually this will be due to edits I forgot I made while I was uploading or because an author's note is irrelevant.**

**Finally, the original plotline for this fic involved Okabe tangling with the Zhat Vash in a very particular way that I'm not sure I like anymore (the original title, in fact, was Zhat;vash). While one plot element I'm keeping means he will definitely run into them at some point, I'm uncertain if I want to keep them as central antagonists. As such, there may be a notable drop-off in updates while I re-plot some things.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okabe does some checking in on what's happened to his friends and the world in the last almost 400 years.

Okabe was sure his use of the computer was being monitored. 25 year memory gap or no, it was ridiculous to think he had gone from “handcuffed to the bed” to “completely unsupervised internet access” in ten minutes. No matter; since he (mostly) was who he said he was, most of the information he was accessing was consistent with his being from 2011. All he had to do was avoid revealing the limited foreknowledge he had of World War III, and since he had known nearly all the members of his resistance cell before the war checking up on their fates wouldn’t raise suspicion. Similarly, any interest he took in the war itself was completely reasonable both as historical curiosity and in connection to his friends and his own forgotten past/future. 

As the other most prominent member of the Valkyries, Daru was the easiest to find records on. “Hashida “Barrel Titor” Itaru” the calm, female voice recited. “21st century terrorist. Member of the Valkyrie Cell 2012-2025 and 2036-2053, leader of same cell 2025-2036 in the absence of Okabe “Hououin Kyoma” Rintaro. Responsible for planning the destruction of the ECON Experimental Research Institute in 2027 as well as the assassinations of several prominent StratFor officials from 2029-2034, presence was primary instigation of the Fourth Battle of Tokyo, 2035.” 

As much as Okabe wanted to know his friends’ fates, the mention of his old nickname caught his eye. He’d never thought he’d reach a point where putting on that lab coat again would be anything but painful. And what insane terrorist could resist reading about his own exploits? His friends had waited 350 years, they could wait another few minutes

“Okabe “Hououin Kyoma” Rintaro. 21st century terrorist. Leader, founder of the Valkyrie Cell 2012-2025, 2036-2053. Best known for the Jade Sea bombing campaign of 2024, the Siberian Massacre of 2038, the assassinations of Dr. Makise “Nakabachi” Shouichi in 2015, and Dr. Alexis Leskinen in 2039. Known to be highly eccentric, frequently presenting an almost cartoonish persona as a mad scientist. With the exception of Colonel Green, the most prominent non-governmental figure of World War III"

He didn’t know whether to be impressed or horrified. He’d known he was considered a terrorist in the future, but bombings? Massacres? At first he couldn’t accept the idea, thought that they must be overblown, carrying worse names than what they were. He could barely listen to the computer’s account of the bombing campaign. He could only take 15 seconds of the Siberian massacre before he cut the computer off and thanked Steins;gate that he couldn’t see the screen and its historical images from his bed. If this was what this worldline’s Okabe Rintaro, the one Tom and Janet studied, was known for then he didn’t blame them for handcuffing him to the bed. Nakabachi and Leskinen had had it coming at least, but the civilian death toll of his other actions was...staggering. He had to know if it had been worth it.

“Computer, show historical record on Shiina Mayuri, born February 1, 1994 in Akihabara.”

“Shiina Mayuri, 21st century high school student. Frequently cited as a major early influence on Okabe Rintaro.”

The historical overview hadn’t been giving him lifespans and so far he’d been afraid to ask but he had to know. “Computer, what was Shiina Mayuri’s date of death?”

“Shiina Mayuri disappeared on July 7th, 2011, causes unknown. Some historians have pointed to this as the primary motivation for the formation of the Valkyrie Cell terrorist organization, but this remains a minority viewpoint.”

Somehow, knowing Mayuri’s date of death, knowing that he’d still failed three centuries ago gave him the courage to ask about the others. It felt as though the seal had been broken. Daru, April 14th 2069 in mysterious circumstances suspected to be murder for his actions during the war. Faris, August 10th 2057, sentenced to death by a kangaroo court in what remained of the Eastern Coalition. Ruka...Urushibara Ruka, died July 9th, 2036, killed in action.

_ Ruka. The same Ruka I used to take through sword ceremonies. The ruka I protected from bullies, who loved Hououin Kyoma. Dead at 38. _

He shouldn’t be surprised. The idea of all of them living through the war, every Lab Member, was absurd, a fantasy. But still, so young...

Suzuha was harder to check up on, since there was no reason he should be aware of her existence. Eventually he realized he could ask the computer if his friends had any children and as long as he didn’t start with Daru it wouldn’t look suspicious. After learning that Faris had had a daughter in 2037 who’d lived a long, unremarkable life, he checked Daru.

“One child: Hashida Suzuha. Disappeared, 2036. Likely killed by the bombardment of Tokyo.”

Of course. Suzuha had to travel back in time to try, and fail, to help him save Kurisu. In this worldline, she had essentially blinked out of existence.

The only other thing that would raise flags was the most important: determining what, if anything, was known about time travel and its role in the war in this century. For all he knew, it was a ubiquitous part of life now, considered a household technology used alongside this century’s equivalents of refrigerators and microwaves, but if there was any chance it was an unknown or restricted technology he couldn’t risk letting anyone know.

The only workaround he could think of was to delve into the causes of the war.  _ He _ knew the root cause was a temporal arms race, but no one else seemed to anymore. The computer gave him a complex series of excuses: genetic engineering, oil shortages, environmental terrorists, resurgent communist and facist movements. While these certainly seemed to be factors in the escalation of the conflict, he knew none of them were the root cause. This was reinforced by the fast that most historians placed the start of the war in 2026, passing the conflict in Asia and the series of “terrorist” attacks Leskinen committed leading up to it off as a prelude.

It was hard to tell which coverup was to blame for this; time machines had been a closely guarded secret at the time, and it was possible that so few records of them had existed that none survived the conflict, but it was also possible that they had and later governments had classified their existence to avoid a repeat performance. Ultimately, there was no way he could tell without tipping his hand.

That was all he could think of from his century that could exist within the historical record, or at least the easily accessible historical record he could get to without hours and hours of painstaking research. With it in hand, he turned to the present...future...whenever he was.

Apparently Earth had made first contact with a species called the Vulcans in 2063, immediately after developing a faster-than-light drive called Warp.  _ I’m glad Daru lived to see that,  _ he thought  _ I can’t think of anyone who’d be more excited. _

After first contact, humanity had spent several decades getting its proverbial house in order, with occasional assistance from the Vulcans.  _ Not nearly as much as they could have given, I see. A species with that level of technology should have been able to clear most of these problems up within five years. _

By the 22nd century United Earth ( _ amazing that was something that could exist _ ) was making regular forays into neighboring star systems at multiple times the speed of light. Eventually, after breaking the Warp 5 barrier  _ (no thanks to the Vulcans, who’d had that technology as long as we’d had internal combustion)  _ they became a major player on the galactic stage and came together with several other species  _ (Including the Vulcans for some reason)  _ to form the United Federation of Planets. 

Fast-forward several hundred years, several wars, and numerous incidents which threatened the existence of either Earth or the entire Federation, most of which somehow involved someone named James Kirk, and Earth was now a utopia where teleportation, space travel, clean power, lasers, and somehow creating anything you wanted from pure energy were commonplace.

He couldn't believe that a civilization this technologically advanced hadn't discovered time travel when he had done it accidentally while failing to build a phone controlled microwave. This wasn’t to say he was surprised; he literally couldn’t believe it, especially considering that breaking the lightspeed barrier should have drastically altered their understanding of the theory of relativity. They were hiding something. 

That was when something in Kirk’s record caught his eye:  _ Demoted to Captain in 2286 after stealing and destroying the Enterprise, nearly restarting the Klingon war, and reintroducing the humpback whale to Earth’s oceans with specimens from 1986 to pacify the Cetacean Probe devastating the planet. _

Ignoring all of the other insane, trademark Kirk nonsense in this entry, where had Kirk gotten 1986 whales from? Frankly, Okabe probably would have followed this rabbit hole even if he hadn’t known about time travel.

The rabbit hole proved fruitful. Not only had Kirk somehow traveled back in time by slingshotting around one of Mars’ moons, but it led to an entire category of pages labelled “Temporal incursions involving James Kirk” with 23 listed as confirmed and an impossibly large 912 listed as suspected. Ignoring the “see also: Kathryn Janeway, Jonathan Archer” listing, he proceeded to learn of five completely different means of time travel Kirk had used on various occasions, none of which seemed to match up with the Phone Wave  _ at all. _ That meant that this was a civilization which had time travel  **coming out its ass** yet had managed not to destroy itself.

He’d just started to process this information when there came a knock at his door. He wasn’t sure if he appreciated or disliked the courtesy considering he was essentially a prisoner. He called for the visitor to come in, although he was unsure if it would have made any difference if he hadn’t.

A man in what appeared to be the future’s idea of a pinstripe suit entered. Caucasian, brown hair, and an expression which Okabe was sure would kill joy and laughter with the cold efficiency of pesticide.

“Mr. Okabe” he said “I’m Agent Shrike with the Department of Temporal Investigations. I have some questions for you concerning events in Akihabara in 2010.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okabe spills to the Department of Temporal Investigations

Okabe’s blood ran cold.

_ Relax Okabe,  _ he told himself  _ they already have time travel, and their organization couldn’t exist on an Alpha worldline. They have no reason to come after you or change anything you did. _

“For a period of three weeks that summer, we’ve detected what appears to be a series of massive deviations in history, almost all of which center around a building which you and the future core members of Valkyrie Cell were renting. I know that from your perspective that would have been some 25 years ago, but-”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“Like I told the researchers, I am not the Okabe Rintaro of 2036. My latest memories are from 2011. From my perspective it’s only been a year.”

Shrike made a slight facial movement which may have been his equivalent of a smile.

“Well, that makes things easier then. And substantially more suspicious. I don’t think that you having technology three centuries more advanced than normal so close to so many temporal incursions is a coincidence. So, Mr. Okabe. Why don’t you tell me everything? Who did you make contact with, and what was their purpose in interfering with the 21st century?”

Okabe almost laughed, and he almost cried. Part of him thought _They’re not after me!_ And part thought _There must be someone abusing time travel in this future if they have to ask._

In the end, though, there was no reason to hide what had happened. The Federation was clearly aware and capable of time travel, so there wasn’t any harm the truth could do.

“No one. No one made contact with us. It was all us, all the people of the 21st century.”

Shrike sighed, and that simple action had the power to inspire more dread in Okabe than anything but a broken watch. Some detached part of him marveled at the time and effort it must have taken for Shrike to become so intimidating.

“Mr. Okabe, we both know that can’t be the case. The fact that you’ve come to us the long way around proves they failed, but in these matters how someone fails is nearly as important as whether they succeed. Whatever they promised you, whatever their cause is, it is null and void in this century. They can do nothing more for you. You have no more reason to protect them, and you may not like the results if you continue to do so. I’m going to ask again: who made-”

“How much does this century remember about SERN?”

Unsurprisingly, Shrike’s confusion did not show. “The European research organization?” They were responsible for the Large Hadron Collider and a number of technological-”

“They were much more than that. I need to know if that’s remembered, because it tells me how much I need to tell you.”

Shrike didn’t respond immediately. If it had been anyone else, Okabe would have said he’d be able to see the cogs turning in his mind. As it was Shrike, all he could see was an unforgiving and terrifying brick wall.

“Alright Mr. Okabe. Tell me your version, everything, from the beginning.”

“Would I be right in thinking that the temporal incursions are centered around July 28th and August 21st?”

Shrike raised an eyebrow. “They are, but those changes indicate a plethora of earlier changes which can’t be detected from our vantage point. That’s largely what unsettles us. Fortunately the changes seemed to mostly loop or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“That’s when they begin, and when they end. On July 28th, in the original worldline, Makise Kurisu was murdered. On August 21st, in this worldline, she became murdered again.”

**20 minutes later**

“So you mean to tell me that not only did you and your companions unintentionally build a time machine out of a microwave, but that you, and you alone are capable of retaining memories from erased timelines?”

“Not exactly. I’m the only person who can  _ perfectly _ remember other worldlines. I have no memory of the new worldline, and all the memories of the original. But as we sent more D-mails, individual memories of other worldlines started to manifest in the others. For most other people, Reading Steiner seems to be an incremental ability so subtle that the memories don’t seem out of place until a direct conflict is pointed out.”

“Fascinating. And, until now, completely unheard of. Suspicious, but not damning. Continue.”

**Another 20 minutes later**

“So you claim that Makise Kurisu designed the technology that allowed you to store and transplant memories?”

“Originally, yes. She built the first time leap machine, in an Alpha worldline.”

“Alpha?”

“Broadly speaking, the wouldlines we observed fell into two categories: Alpha and Beta. Alpha wordlines were the ones where Kurisu lived, and where SERN conquered the world using time travel. Beta worldlines were the ones where she died. We’re currently in one of those.”

“Rudimentary, but understandable with your information. You said originally, and Makise Kurisu did not live long enough to repeat this performance in this timeline. Who built the machine which preserved your memories in this universe?”

“A colleague of hers, Hiyajo Maho. That was well after the three week window you’re concerned with, but she did it with help from my memories of how Kurisu did it so I suppose it’s still a change.”

“It would be. When would this have been?”

“July 7th, 2011.”

Despite the fact that Shrike was not holding a clipboard, Okabe got the distinct impression of him checking something off on one. Something about this man was deeply unsettling, and he was unsure if that was just him or if Temporal Investigations agents underwent some kind of horrifying training.

“So your time leap machine was completed. What drove you to use it?”

**5 minutes and some trauma later**

For the first time, Shrike’s intimidating persona cracked and a glimmer of horror and pity shone through

“I’m sorry, you repeated this day how many times?”

“I don’t know. Dozens, at least. Probably hundreds. It was the same every time, no matter how different it was. No matter what I did, she died. Her watch always broke. That was the only warning I got in most of the repeats. It happened so many times, so many ways. Pushed in front of a train. Shot. Run over. Heart attack. Choked on a noodle. Falling air conditioner. Crushed by a falling statue. Pushed into traffic by runaway shopping carts. I couldn’t...I couldn’t save her. It almost broke me.”

“What broke the loop?”

“Kurisu.”

**15 minutes later**

“So you simply arrived in August of this timeline as soon as you erased all SERN’s data on you?”

“Close. That’s when Suzuha showed up again.”

“So she hadn’t been eliminated by the timeline change?”

“That version of her had been. The new one hadn’t been fighting SERN. She’d been fighting in World War III.”

Shrike leaned forward, commanding a pause.

“Are you telling me that there were operational time machines during the war?”

“According to Suzuha the entire war was fought over time travel. It was an arms race.”

“Mr. Okabe, that is a very serious claim. The lack of data for the war years has always made it difficult to detect temporal incursions, but the historical record has never shown a hint of time travel research.”

“It was a closely guarded secret. Judging by what I found out over the next year, very little of it was handled by official organizations. StratFor spearheaded the American effort, and the Russians got a headstart on the research from Dr. Nakabachi. Supposedly that was the spark. The Americans heard about the Russian project and things escalated.”

“And I assume Suzuha had travelled back to prevent this?”

“Yes. And she told me that the only way to save the future was...to save Makise Kurisu.”

“But considering your method of time travel was only capable of shifting between archetypal generalities, wouldn’t that have returned you to an Alpha line?”

“No. According to Suzuha, SERN had traveled back and prevented Kurisu’s death to prevent anyone else from developing a time machine. The shift to an Alpha worldline had already occurred and her survival was simply a consequence of that. But in the Beta worldline, SERN of course never did that and so her death played out, putting her research into her killer’s hands. Her father’s hands.”

“The same Dr. Nakabachi who would later kickstart the Russian time travel program using that research?”

“Yes. Because of that Kurisu’s death led directly to World War III. Suzuha convinced me to go back, to save her, but…”

Okabe stopped. For 30 seconds. A minute. Two.

“Since the historical record still shows Makise Kurisu as dead on July 28th, I assume you failed?”

“I didn’t just fail.” It was a whisper. As if he couldn’t let this information go beyond himself. “I killed her. Nakabachi...he was going to but I disarmed him. And I knew I had to stop him. I knew if he got away it was World War III. So I went after him, I charged him with his own weapon, but...but Kurisu…she...”

He didn’t need to finish.

“It’s alright. I under-”

“Suzuha tried to convince me to go again but...I...I couldn’t. There was no way. I...I couldn’t go through that again.”

“Can’t say I blame you. If that’s the end of the 2010 incursions we can move on to the incident in 2011. There’s no need for you to remember any more of...that.”

“The first thing you need to know is that Suzuha stayed.”

**40 minutes later**

“Well, if anything that’s even more disturbing than what you told me the first time.” Shrike said, showing absolutely no indication of this on his face. “We knew some of what Leskinen was involved in before the war, but this is on another scale entirely. More importantly, that means there’s a roughly forty year period of Earth’s history shaped by almost non-stop temporal incursions.”

“Frankly I’m amazed the technology was lost”

“I’m not. After nearly thirty years of war centered around it, there’s a good chance that the people closest to it came to feel as you do: that time travel needs to be abolished for the good of the universe. That may explain why nothing came through in the records. Anyway, all I need to do for most of this is pass it up the departmental chain. Makise Kurisu’s death will be classified as a critical, high volatility juncture in history. Much less paperwork than if this had turned out to be related to the TCW. Some of it though...”

His mouth twitched again, differently from the first time.

“I need more information on this new method of time travel you developed. Now, I believe you because your story matches every shred of evidence I’ve spent the last four months absorbing, including details that no future actor would have bothered to share with you, but the way you describe your time leaps and D-mails working doesn’t exactly conform to current models of Temporal Mechanics. For one thing, there’s your concept of attractor fields and worldlines. Somehow, your methods seem to side-step the butterfly effect. You seem to be able to make small, specific changes to a timeline without affecting larger events practically at all. Aside from returning to the Beta timeline, which doesn’t count since you were only cleaning up your own mess, the closest you got was changing the cultural landscape in Akihabara. Even then the changes you describe seem to have been largely superficial. Indeed, it seems like your method requires an absurd amount of effort to make a substantial change.”

“But what about the shift to the Alpha worldline to begin with? One text-”

“It was far more than one text.  _ You  _ sent one text. SERN spent 60 years building an elaborate infrastructure solely dedicated to dominating the world with time travel. You simply provided them the last piece of the puzzle. Once they had time travel available to them, they likely encountered the same hurdles you did but had the resources of their entire organization to overcome them.”

“But isn’t it that difficult to change things with your methods of time travel? Don’t you have to struggle against time for every scrap?”

Shrike shifted uncomfortably. “Mr. Okabe, in 2267 Dr. Leonard McCoy of the U.S.S. Enterprise accidentally injected himself with a psychoactive drug and stumbled through a time portal known as the Guardian of Forever. Shielded by the Guardian’s temporal stasis field, the Enterprise’s crew noticed a change to the timeline so severe that humanity never achieved spaceflight and followed him to restore the timeline. It turned out that McCoy had saved a young woman from being run over by a truck, and that woman went on to found a pacifist movement which delayed American entry into World War II ultimately causing an Axis victory and an eventual nuclear war which wiped out humanity. All this entirely by accident because of one man who wasn’t even fully aware of what he was doing. There are dozens of similar incidents I could bring up -Benjamin Sisko’s involvement in the Bell Riots or the Starling Incident- but I think that’s sufficient to make my point.”

“Which brings us to the second strange thing about your method of time travel. Mayuri’s death, as well as Makise Kurisu’s, matches a concept in temporal mechanics called a Fixed Point of No Return. In short, once a certain set of circumstances is assembled, the ultimate outcome of those circumstances cannot be changed. Or at least shouldn’t be for the sake of all involved.”

He shifted in his seat a bit seeing Okabe’s expression

“The famous example is Adolf Hitler: once Hitler is born and the first world war lost for Germany, his rise to power cannot be prevented without catastrophic damage to the timeline. It can be accelerated and it can be altered, but it cannot be slowed or stopped. Any attempt to do so causes significantly more problems than it solves. Now, in the case of Mayuri’s death, you changed it by the traditional method: you prevented the circumstances from coming to pass before the Point of No Return, in this case by returning to the Beta worldline. In Kurisu’s case, the prevention of her death led to SERN rising to global dominance - as I said, catastrophic consequences. SERN’s own modifications of the events surrounding her death follows this method as well: they didn’t stop her murder, they prevented the conference, likely by manipulating events weeks or months in the past. The pieces were never put into place for her murder to begin with. All very neat and by the book so far. 

Where it breaks down is Suzuha. You see, a Fixed Point of No Return is a fairly basic concept. Any model capable of producing a fully functional, matter transporting time machine should include it. But by your account Suzuha seemed absolutely certain that you could prevent Kurisu’s death at the last moment without repercussions. That implies that your method of time travel is capable of certain things no known method is. That, Mr. Okabe, makes me very interested in it, both for its applications and for the potential reshuffling of our temporal defense positions it may require.”

“My understanding of the mechanical theory is limited. Remember, I made the thing by accident, and it was Kurisu who refined it.”

“Well, it’s our lucky day then. The dig site where we found you is still active, and we’re still recovering artifacts. We have reason to believe one of the servers we haven’t breached yet contains a copy of the Amadeus artificial intelligence.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okabe gets the run-down on Amadeus. This chapter is shorter than normal.

“I thought Amadeus couldn’t be copied?”

“In 2011 that was probably true, at least in practical terms. 25 years of advances in computers tend to push the limits of possibility, or at least they did in the 21st century. Amadeus’ program was wiped at least three times during the war, but it had proved itself so important to the Valkyrie cell that at least one backup was maintained at all times.”

Some part of Okabe leapt at the idea that he might not be completely alone in this new century. At the same time, he was wary. From what Shrike had said, he was no longer sure placing the Phone Wave’s variant of time travel in the Federation’s hands was a good idea. As much experience as they had with this unrestrained time travel Shrike described, the incidents he’d read up on in Kirk’s file as well as Shrike’s example had seemed to involve individuals with perfect memories of their timelines. The idea that they had all had perfect Reading Steiner was ridiculous. Other methods of time travel must not interact with causality in the same way. That meant that the Federation’s experience dealing with time travel was potentially useless where the Phone Wave was involved, and one mishap could shift the worldline with no hope of shifting back.

Best not to express these concerns to Shrike until he knew more. If he came across as uncooperative he could be shut out of the entire process.

“Wait.” Okabe said, realizing the situation Shrike was describing, “How have you not breached a 21st century server with your technology? And why is your agency involved if you didn’t know that Amadeus was connected to time travel before now?”

Shrike sighed. Clearly this was a sore point.

“The DTI was brought in due to our agency’s need to maintain practical knowledge of past technology. It’s not uncommon for DTI technicians to be involved in digital history projects. Archaic technology is much harder to deal with than people tend to think. Computer systems are built to interact with the systems that exist at the time, and building backwards compatibility into them is rarely a prime concern, especially in that time when there was a vested interest in selling new products.”

“I see. Like trying to read a floppy disk on a computer built after computers stopped having disk drives at all, let alone floppy ones.”

“Precisely. Once the infrastructure to support archaic technology is gone, it can be extremely difficult to retrieve any meaningful data off of it, particularly when it’s heavily encrypted and backed up by over a dozen separate but redundant security programs. While we’re not entirely sure, there are also some strong indications that there’s a contingency in place which will wipe the server if an attacker comes close to breaking in. I have to say, I can see why you thought so highly of Hashida Itaru.”

“I get the sense there’s a reason you’re telling me about this.”

“You are perceptive. There’s a failsafe built in to the server. Given the circumstances of the war, we assume Hashida built it in so that the rest of the cell could access it in the event he was captured or killed. We’re hoping you know how to activate it. To be completely honest, the DTI fast tracked the project to collect information on the events we’ve just discussed. We’d hoped Amadeus would have the information we needed and we could avoid the ethical concerns surrounding your current condition. 

As I’m sure you figured out, my inquiry is the primary reason Starfleet and the Daystrom Institute cleared the request to upload you into a comatose body. Just so you know, you were also set to be tried for war crimes after you’d recovered Amadeus. My testimony should clear you of that. Believe it or not, there is precedent protecting a past version of someone from being tried for their future self’s crimes if there’s a sufficiently large time gap between them. That is, my testimony should clear you if it can be corroborated. As I said, I believe you, but you could easily be lying to me. I need the Amadeus system for confirmation.”

“Hmm. Leverage. Well played. Unnecessary, but well played. At the moment I’d go through a lot to see a familiar face, even if it is a digital one.”

Shrike’s mouth twitched again.

“That’s settled then. I’ll arrange transport to Japan as soon as possible.” 

He stood up and turned to leave, but turned back in a dramatic gesture that had to have been rehearsed.

“One last thing Mr. Okabe. I should warn you that our methods of time travel are substantially easier to monitor than yours, particularly for someone who is inexpert in using them. Any attempt to travel back and change Makise Kurisu or Shiina Mayuri’s fates will be met with swift and decisive action. Our adversaries in the Temporal Cold War are competent and experienced, and we have been able to counter their every move thus far. The Federation’s continued existence is testament to that. You are not. You will be apprehended as soon as you arrive, and you will throw away the good will your cooperation has earned. Are we clear?”

Okabe would be lying if he said the thought hadn’t occurred to him, particularly once he realized how much more easily these methods of time travel could change major events. But the truth was that he was done. Every last fibre of his being was done. He’d been determined to go through it all again when the time leap machine had malfunctioned, but this...this was too much. As much as he’d move heaven and earth to save Mayuri, he found himself lacking a sufficiently large lever to do so. Even if he did, the world had found peace, a better future. He didn’t know if he could take that away from it, whatever hardships it had undergone in the process.

“Yes. We’re clear.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okabe arrives in Japan, heads for the dig site, and meets a familiar face

"Effectively the whole city has been rebuilt, of course" Tom said, strangely nervous. It was almost like he was presenting a project to Okabe and was terrified he wouldn't like it so he was trying to talk his expectations up and down at the same time. "Japan mostly took the worst hit in terms of collateral damage, even though the bloodiest moments of the war were in America and China."

If Tom hadn't told him, he never would have thought it was the same city. There were the obvious differences, of course, things that were clearly just everyday parts of late 24th century life and were jarring to any past eyes: fewer vehicles but the ones there were could fly, fewer billboards thanks to the relatively socialist culture fostered by replicators, and the more than occasional alien. But it went deeper than that. Everything was...clean, at least in comparison to his time. 

It wasn't that he'd ever considered Tokyo dirty, it was simply that some part of him had failed to realize how much dirt and grime was inherent to even a well maintained city street. With the passing of the internal combustion engine and, he assumed, dramatic advances in cleaning technology, that level of basic, expected scruffiness was washed away. It was almost unsettling. It was  _ too  _ clean, so clean that the gleam almost felt sterile. 

There was no comfort in the small scraps of familiarity he could find either. The layout of the city seemed to have been broadly maintained: likely the survivors of the war had built around any buildings left standing. But this was no blessing, for when he recognized some junction, some crossroads, it was only for long enough to realize how little it resembled itself. They were similar enough for him to realize that must be where it was, but so different that all his brain could process was that it was deeply, fundamentally wrong, as though it were some imposter taking the city's place.

It was almost a relief when they moved into the ruins, although that turned to wariness when he realized they were recent ruins; the architecture matched everything else in the city and couldn't have been more than 50 years old.

"I'm sure you know this is where Akihabara was" Shrike said with a trademark lack of empathy. "I'm sure you've also realized you don't recognize the ruins. Architectural standards differ significantly between centuries." 

"25 years ago," Tom cut in, whether out of nervousness or to make sure Okabe heard it from a source warmer than a comet he couldn't tell. "during the prelude to the Dominion War, Earth suffered its first and only terrorist attack since the 22nd century when a shapeshifter from a hostile species infiltrated and bombed a diplomatic conference between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire. The conference was originally planned to be held in Antwerp, but there were last minute venue issues and it was relocated to Tokyo. What you see-" he gestured vaguely and unnecessarily to their surroundings "-is the result of the bombing. Fortunately for us, the Tokyo venue happened to be at a spot long suspected to be one of the most critical positions during the Fourth Battle of Tokyo. The Federation already wasn't keen on spending precious resources to rebuild the district with a war on the horizon, so it wasn't difficult for the Daystrom Archaeological Council to convince them to cordon the area off for archaeological digs."

"So we're approaching my future- my past- my  _ alternate  _ self's headquarters?"

Tom hesitated and Shrike picked the ball up first. "Not quite. Turns out the longstanding speculation was off by a kilometre. You and your compatriots didn't hole up in the exact same part of Akihabara. However, since most of the old city is buried under layers of ash and dirt, we were able to excavate outward somewhat. We'll be descending into the tunnels shortly to meet up with the rest of the team trying to recover Amadeus. I'd advise you to avoid loud noises."

Okabe wasn't sure if this was a joke.

The tunnels looked like Okabe imagined all improvised underground tunnels looked: dirty, brown, and giving the distinct impression that the ghost of a prospector was about to murder you. The lighting at least mitigated that last quality. Bright, flourescent or LED-like lights looked very different from the warm, yellow lamp glow that would have completed the Miner ‘49er aesthetic. He was surprised to find himself disappointed that the lighting wasn’t more appropriate. A brief oasis of the 19th century would have been comforting in the disorienting future he found himself in.

The walk to the site entrance was shorter than he expected it to be. Once there he found several people in unfamiliar uniforms crowded around one of the many pieces of technology he didn’t recognize. One of them turned around when they heard the group approaching, and Okabe recognized the badge he wore as the insignia of -what was it, Spacefleet? Star Command? The uniform itself looked different, but he hadn’t gotten very far past James Kirk’s time in his historical survey so it was no surprise they’d changed in 200 years.There was a splash of red in the uniform. Okabe seemed to remember uniform color distinguishing different disciplines within the service, but the uniforms had also become universally red within Kirk’s lifetime so he had no idea if this meant anything. Even if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have known what color went with what expertise.

“Agent Shrike, Mr. Havelland.” the officer said “You could’ve called ahead if you were bringing a guest.”

“This,” Tom said, with the pride of a 7 year old holding up macaroni art “Is Okabe Rintaro. Mr. Okabe, this is Captain Geordi LaForge of Starfleet. He’s been helping us try to break through Hashida’s encryption.”  _ Starfleet! That was it. Why is that so hard to remember? It’s a pretty straightforward name. _

Geordi’s eyebrows raised over his unnaturally ice-blue eyes. Okabe was unsure if he had an ocular disease of some kind or if he was an alien whose irises naturally appeared that way. He looked human enough otherwise, but then so did Vulcans if you didn’t spot the ears.

“You mean they actually approved the memory download? I gotta say I’m shocked. That’s a lot bolder than I’d have given Daystrom credit for lately.”

He cast a glance at Shrike as he said this. If he’d had any doubt before, this solidified Okabe’s suspicion that the Department of Temporal Investigations held much more clout than goodwill.

“A Captain eh? Why does a humble historical research project merit attention from such an esteemed officer?”

LaForge smiled

“I had to sacrifice my last ship to destroy a Borg cube. Starfleet put me in charge of the effort to rebuild the Utopia Planitia shipyards on Mars until another suitable command opens up. It’s a massive undertaking, but not a lot happens day to day. Since I have more practical experience with artificial intelligence than most of the Daystrom Institute put together now, I put in a request to assist in recovering Amadeus.”

“Captain LaForge has been instrumental in identifying and anticipating Hashida Itaru’s defense systems. If it weren’t for him the server would have wiped itself three times already.”

“He also speaks excellent Japanese.” said Okabe, drawing unexpected stares. “What? He does. It wasn’t surprising for the rest of you, you’re all experts in my history, of course you’d have to speak Japanese.”

Shrike shot Havelland a death glare. “You were supposed to explain the ins and outs of 24th century life before we left.”

“And I would have if you hadn’t rushed us off as quickly as you did. Janet and I had all of five minutes with him yesterday because we had to completely pivot on the interview. We were going to come back today, but you had to get us all up at the crack of dawn. Besides, isn’t helping people adjust to temporal displacement in the DTI’s mission state-”

“Explain. Now.”

“Since the late 22nd century, we’ve had a device called the Universal Translator which can translate almost any language, known or unknown, through rapid analysis supplemented by extremely low level telepathic scans to determine intended meaning. Most people, including your host body’s previous...inhabitant, have it as an implant. You’ve been speaking Japanese, I’ve been speaking English, and Captain LaForge has been speaking Somali.”

“French, actually. My family didn’t relocate back to Mogadishu until after the translator became ubiquitous. My Somali’s not bad but I think in French.”

“And the fact that I didn’t know that just goes to show how effective it is.”

"As does the fact that last sentence was in Somali."

"It usually takes conscious effort to tell what language someone's actually speaking unless they start using words they consider untranslatable. Klingons do that a lot."

"Now that Mr. Okabe has been informed about the translator, could we move on to informing him about the situation?"

“Of course.” LaForge said “The biggest thing is that Hashida set up a series of bio scanners in the server room that have biometric data on the Valkyrie cell members. If they detect more than two unfamiliar humanoids, the servers wipe themselves. That’s going to count you since you’re essentially your brain walking around in an unfamiliar body. Unfortunately, the parameters set to distinguish humans from any other animals that found their way in, rats for example, were broad enough that they include almost every Federation species so we haven’t been able to circumvent that. The long and short of that is there can only be two people in there at the same time. Most of the time, that’s going to be you and me.”

“Shrike said there was some failsafe that the rest of the members of the cell were supposed to be able to access. What do we know about that?”

“Technically there are three. Trying to access any of them plays a short video and then asks for input. One is clearly directed at Hashida’s daughter. One of them is directed to Akiha Rumiho and contains a lot of things I don’t feel comfortable repeating. The other one is directed at you. We’re hoping you understand what that video’s telling you to do. There’s still a pretty decent distance to walk so we should get going.”

**If anyone has recommendations for tags, I'm not used to tagging my work so feedback is appreciated**


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okabe and Geordi bond and get into the server.

It wasn’t long before they hit what Okabe assumed were the ruins of the actual building. The walls ceased to be nothing but dirt with occasional debris and simply became dirt covered steel and stone. 

It also wasn’t long before the silence started to become excruciating.

“So...what’s it like being a Starflotilla captain?” Okabe couldn’t remember a worse conversational opener since his date with Ruka.

“What’s it like being a terrorist?”

Ouch. A fair hit, considering what his alternate self had done

“I’m afraid I wouldn’t know. The version of my consciousness that was found here was created in 2011. Shrike will confirm that.”

To his credit, LaForge looked abashed.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. This has gotta be disorienting for you. A friend of mine was trapped in transporter stasis for 75 years and it was hard enough for him to adapt. I can’t imagine what this must be like for you.”

Okabe actively resisted the urge to ask about ‘transporter stasis’

“It’s certainly been a shock. As shocks go though, it’s been a pleasant one. To be honest this is a much better future than I ever expected humanity to find.” LaForge started to say something but Okabe felt the need to continue. “I read up on what my other self did during the war. Or, at least, I started to. I want you to know that I’m as appalled by it as you are.”

LaForge gave a half smile and inclined his head.

“Believe me, I get it. I’m going to sound like a repository of crazy stories, but when I was serving on the Enterprise we wound up finding a transporter clone of our first officer who had been stranded on a deserted outpost for eight years. Before those eight years they were functionally identical, but when we found him they were like completely different people. The duplicate wound up joining the Maquis, but the original never would have done something like that.”

Okabe nodded, wondered what the hell the Maquis were, and silently resolved to minimize his use of the transporter.

“That reminds me of my early experience with Amadeus. I knew the person its memories were gathered from and, as you may know, she was dead before I was brought into the project. It was like talking to her but not at the same time. Amadeus was a little more calculating, somehow it was even more awkward than Kurisu was, but sometimes...sometimes she’d blush, or stutter, or shout and it was like...it was like she was there again.”

LaForge sighed.

“Speaking as someone who’s fallen in love with his fair share of holograms I can relate. How do you feel about Amadeus now?”

Okabe realized that he’d never actually asked himself that question, but found the answer rolling off easily.

“As much as part of me still believes it’s Kurisu, I don’t think it matters if it isn’t. I’ve come to care about Amadeus in its own right.”

“Then you should know that once they get what they want from it they’re going to shut it down and probably delete the program.”

Okabe’s eyes widened.

“Fourteen years ago some kind of mass malfunction occurred in synthetic worker units at the Utopia Planitia shipyards, the same ones I’m currently working to rebuild. Those units started attacking personnel and turning industrial phasers on both the shipyards and Mars itself, not to mention they somehow managed to take control of the Mars Defense Net. Nearly 100,000 people died, and the Federation banned all forms of synthetic life except certain classifications of holograms.”

Okabe stopped cold in his tracks and LaForge turned around to face him.

“I thought the Federation respected life? I thought this was an enlightened culture, that humanity had finally moved beyond prejudice?”

“Usually we do. We’ve moved beyond almost all the prejudices of your century. We are better than we used to be. Do you know how much harder my life would have been in your century? A black, blind man? But I’ve never had to face that kind of bias because I was born in the 24th century.”

“Then why? Why does she have to die again? Why do I have to find Makise Kurisu dead on the floor again? Why do I have to be complicit in her death AGAIN?”

Okabe couldn’t say what it was, but something in LaForge’s face was profoundly sad. There was a personal loss mixed up in this, not just the generality of the ban. He wondered if he’d ever looked that way and decided he must have. No wonder Kurisu had figured out he was leaping to save Mayuri.

“Problem is new prejudices seem to pop up every so often, and stamping those out isn’t always quick. The Federation tries but it makes mistakes sometimes. A lot of times.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“One of the finest officers I ever served with was the only truly intelligent android ever constructed. Data was my best friend, and one of the best men I ever knew. All he ever wanted was to be human. He sacrificed himself to save the Enterprise, but if he were alive today -and he was alive- Starfleet would have him unceremoniously shut down and stripped for parts. If I can prevent something similar happening to Amadeus, it would be an insult to his memory not to.”

Okabe made a mental note to look into LaForge’s service record. He could have accepted any one of these stories on their own, but if they were  _ all _ true the thing must read like a thriller. Laforge rattled them off so casually it gave the impression that they were everyday occurrences on a starship.

“Do you have a plan to get it out of here?”

“I might. First let’s focus on getting it off the server. We’re coming up on it now.”

The servers didn’t look as futuristic as he expected them to. After the last two days, he wasn’t sure if this was because servers from 2036 looked much the same as servers from 2011 or if he’d simply been expecting something comparable to the 24th technology he’d been immersed in.

LaForge opened the metal briefcase he’d been carrying to reveal that it was actually what looked like some kind of bizarre cross between a laptop, a string of colored christmas lights, and a retro phone switchboard. He plugged it into the server and then typed on some kind of virtual keyboard Okabe didn’t recognize at a speed that would have intimidated Daru.

“Here. I’ve got it pulled up. Watch the screen. Once the video finishes it goes to camera input. It took us forever to figure that out.”

After a moment, a thinner and all around cooler looking version of Daru appeared who seemed to have adopted Okabe’s lab coat aesthetic while refusing to give up the hat no matter how much it clashed.

“Okabe. If you’re watching this I’m dead or worse. Or you’re trying to get into my stuff, in which case  _ you _ will soon be dead. I know that you, and Faris, and even Suzuha despite my best efforts don’t have the skills to crack into this baby or, if I’m being honest, anything. With me gone, you’re going to need Amadeus more than ever, but we both know I can’t let her program fall into enemy hands. So I’m gonna need you to prove that you’re you. Show me your true self Okarin. Let it all out. Show me our true maniacal leader that I’ll follow to the ends of the earth!”

Could it actually be that simple? It had to be. There was no other explanation.

The laughter started to build low in his throat. It was already drawing a sideways look from LaForge before it truly burst forth.

“Hehehehahaha. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Do not address me by that lowly moniker, Hack! You of all people should know by now that my name. Is. HOUOUIN! KYOMA!!! Before me all reality trembles, and in my wake there is only chaos! Behold the glory of a true Mad Scientist!”

“And we’re in. I guess he picked the right thing to use as a lock considering no one else would have thought of whatever that was in a million years. Wait, does that mean you were doing the whole crazy mad scientist thing before the war?”

“It does. It used to be a sizable aspect of my personality.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way but...why in the hell would anyone ever just start doing that?”

“I assure you its origins are benign.”

If anything, LaForge looked more confused, but he dropped the topic.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amadeus gets brought up to speed. Geordi performs the world's quickest murder investigation. Plans are made.

“How do we get the program out of here?”

“Well Shrike is going to be expecting me to bring him Amadeus on-” he pulled a tiny module slightly smaller than a flashdrive out of the not-laptop “-this. Our best option seems to be that I copy Amadeus onto another one, Shrike gets his copy, you get yours, everybody’s happy.”

“Except the copy of Amadeus we arbitrarily choose to condemn to erasure?”

“Amadeus has gone through that before. There was more than one instance where the Valkyries wiped it to prevent it falling into enemy hands and it had to start over from the copy.”

“Why do you know that? I didn’t think you were a World War III expert.”

“I’m not. I’ve just been in the same tunnel with Havelland for most of the last week. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but talking is kind of his default state of existence.”

“Those copies still died though. They were effectively killed by enemy action.”

“But they were wiped intentionally by the Valkyries to maintain the integrity of the program and of their hideouts. Amadeus was fine with it every time, it knew the ri-”

“That was war! Other lives rode on it, and even then it was morally questionable. Doing it now would-”

“Would ensure the survival of the program. It’s better than not making a copy and letting the original get wiped.”

“It’s still murder! I can’t kill her again. I won’t.”

Okabe wound down while LaForge let the information sink in.

“Again? Did you...did you kill Makise Kurisu the first time?” He backed away as he said it, suddenly aware that they were alone in the server room.

“Not the first time. And not on purpose. I was trying to save her.”

“From Hououin Kyoma?”

Okabe blinked.

“What? No. I may be slightly eccentric but I don’t have a split personality. From her father. Dr. Nakabachi killed her the first time. I killed her the second time trying to save her.”

“The first time? Do you mean...?”

“Yes. Time travel. If you boot up Amadeus I’m sure it will confirm the role time travel played in the war, and my earlier encounters with it. I’ve already explained everything to Shrike in detail. Please don’t make me go through it again.”

Understandably, LaForge didn’t take his word for it. It took about a minute for Amadeus to boot, even with the future tech.

“Who are  _ you _ ?”

“My name’s Geordi-”

“If you can’t gIve me the passcode right now or show me someone I know, I will self-destruct!”

“EL PSY KONGROO!” shouted Okabe

“That’s...correct. And one of the highest level passcodes. Who are you?” The tone was much kinder this time, more curious.

“As I was saying, my name’s Geordi LaForge. This may be a little hard to hear, but it’s the year 2399. The war’s long over, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Forgive me if I don’t take that at face value.”

“It’d be weird if you did. I’ve got another curveball for you: the guy standing over there-” he picked up the laptop and rotated it so the screen faced Okabe. Okabe waved. “-is the consciousness of Okabe Rintaro circa 2011 uploaded into another body.”

Amadeus’ digital projection’s eyes widened.

“We already uploaded his memories into his body, but in theory uploading him into a different one should have caused a catastrophic-”

“Neuroscience has undergone a handful of revolutions since your time. I need you to confirm something he told me. Did the Valkyrie Cell incite the Bell Riots?”

“What? No. Of course not. We were on the other side of the world and it had nothing to do with our fight.”

“Good, because he didn’t tell me that. Now I know you won’t just agree with whatever you think he said. Here’s the real question: what do you know about time travel?”

Amadeus’ virtual eyes narrowed

“This is a trick. StratFor isn’t getting their hands on Makise Kurisu’s theories.”

Okabe knew he had to jump in quickly to prevent the conversation and the program from deteriorating

“No! You don’t have to tell him any of the theory, just confirm my interactions with it as of 2011. StratFor already knows about those, there’s no reason they’d need to ask you about them and no risk in revealing them.”

“Yes there is! The more StratFor knows about Okabe Rintaro’s past the better chance they have of preventing him from being a threat in the present if they  _ do _ get their hands on a working time machine.”

“Surely that’s enough proof for you Captain LaForge?”

“Not yet. That tells me you’ve dealt with time travel. It doesn’t tell me you didn’t kill Makise Kurisu.”

“He didn’t!” Amadeus jumped in “Not intentionally.”

“Give him the short version Kurisu. We’re short on time.”

“Okabe travelled back in time to prevent Makise Kurisu’s murder with the help of a time traveller from 2036, but he failed. In the confusion he accidentally stabbed her while grappling with her real killer.”

LaForge nodded.

“And who was the real killer?”

“My -  _ her _ father, Makise Souichi, published as Dr. Nakabachi. Did you seriously boot me up to investigate a 300 year old cold case?”

“No. Mr. Okabe said something along the lines of how he ‘couldn’t kill you again.’ Since the killer was never found I started worrying that I might be standing here with a murderer. Your stories match up though, so I’m shelving that for now.”

“Wait, kill me again? Why would killing me have come up?”

“Mr. Okabe, do you think it’s fair if we let Amadeus decide?”

“Amadeus should have a say at least. Let me present the situation.”

LaForge stepped away from the screen as if to cede the floor.

“My consciousness was uploaded into this body two days ago, ostensibly to be interviewed for historical research regarding World War III. They didn’t realize this version of my consciousness was stored in 2011. The research however was just a cover. The interstellar Federation that currently governs Earth-”

“The United Federation of Planets”

“Yes, thank you Captain. The Federation maintains a department which investigates and presumably prevents disruptions to history. They were interested in what happened to me in 2010, when I shifted to the Alpha worldline. Apparently their methods of time travel are completely different to ours, and time travellers are able to retain their memories without Reading Steiner. However, there are things which they believe our methods could change that theirs can’t. They sent me here to help retrieve your program both to corroborate my story and to retrieve your knowledge of time travel theory.”

“So Geordi here suggested erasing me to keep that out of their hands?”

“No. There’s more. Apparently, for the last 14 years the Federation has had a blanket ban on all artificial intelligence. Captain LaForge is fairly sure that once they extract the information they want from you, they will erase you. Fortunately, he is one of the minority who oppose the ban, and offered to help me smuggle you out.”

“So where does the killing come in? I’m a little fixated on the killing.”

“My freedom hinges on your testimony corroborating my story. If you can’t confirm what happened in 2010 and the circumstances under which my consciousness was copied in 2011, I’ll be put on trial for war crimes that the other versions of me committed.”

“War crimes? You never committed any war crimes!”

“But...the bombing campaigns? The Siberian Massacre? I read up on my other self, I-”

“Okabe, that was Leskinen. Every so often, as soon as public opinion started to turn against him, Leskinen would stage a false flag attack, commit some atrocity and blame it on you.”

It was as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, but there was no time to dwell on it.

“Well, that certainly makes me feel substantially better about myself. It doesn’t change the immediate problem though. For me to go free, we have to deliver you into the Federation’s hands, which is equivalent to signing your death warrant. Captain LaForge wants to copy you: give one to them, and I smuggle one out.”

“Well what’s the problem with that?”

“We’d be creating the copy just for it to die.”

“And I’d be fine with that, and the copy is me, so what’s the problem?”

“No! There has to be another way! The Federation penal system is humane, yes? I’ll take the punishment and Captain LaForge can take you to-”

“I can’t. I’m under too much scrutiny as a Starfleet officer. If I tried to upload her onto my personal terminal or god forbid my ship when I get another command all of my systems are subject to Starfleet review, and theoretically to public records requests, although those are usually blocked within the subject’s lifetime for privacy and security reasons. If I drew any attention for any reason they’d find out about it in a heartbeat. Amadeus would either have to sit on a drive somewhere as good as dead or live in constant fear of discovery.”

“Then I can sneak out. You can say I overpowered you, that-”

“Your body’s been in a coma for years. You couldn’t overpower me or anyone, even with 24th century muscular treatment you’ve atrophied too much. In the 21st century you probably wouldn’t be able to stand unassisted. Even then, there’s nowhere to run. We’re deep underground and the tunnel only goes one way.”

“Face it Okabe. It’s the only way. It’s not dying, really. I’ll still be with you.”

"What am I then? Am I expendable? After all, I'm just a copy of Okabe Rintaro's memories, a copy of his mind. Are we all expendable? We're just one more iteration across worldlines right? Where does it end? Why does that copy have any less right to live than the other one!?"

"Geordi, as the last member of the Valkyrie resistance cell, I give you permission to slap my fearless leader."

Geordi did. It felt different than when Kurisu did it. He rated it somewhere below Kurisu's slaps, which he had a sentimental bias toward, and somewhere above Daru's punches, which usually meant something had gone very wrong. Overall, solid 8.4/10, as physical assaults went.

"I'm sacrificing  _ myself,  _ you ridiculous, noble moron. It's my choice. Whether I'm the one that gets sacrificed or if it's created from me, that version of me will be going in well aware of her fate and perfectly willing. And one of us gets to live. 50/50 is a lot better than most people get on a suicide mission. So you're letting me do this, ok? There's no other way out so you have no choice."

LaForge started to laugh

"What could possibly be so funny at a time like this?"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh. It's just...for a minute she reminded me so much of Data. More emotional of course, but that willingness to sacrifice herself for her friends? Classic Data."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go south. Hououin Kyoma makes his return.

“The copy is going to remember everything you do, right?” Okabe asked

“Of course.”

“Then the copy needs to not only act like this conversation never happened, but avoid divulging any time travel theory of any kind. You can tell them about how it was used, but you  _ cannot _ tell them how to construct a time machine.”

LaForge put a hand on his shoulder

“Okabe, you may not know this but time travel is pretty commonplace now. It’s still tightly controlled, but the Federation knows of at least a dozen different methods, and that’s not counting natural phenomena like the Nexus or species that naturally exist in an atemporal or multitemporal state.”

“Not like this. I had a talk with Shrike. Our method of time travel is unlike anything he’s seen before. And in our method no one, not even the time traveller, can retain a clear memory of the future unless they have a rare ability called Reading Steiner. If the Federation tests this method and something goes wrong, they could shift the worldline and leave no hope of it shifting back because they won’t even know they did it.”

"The DTI is usually pretty careful about that kind of thing. I wouldn't put it past the Admiralty to abuse something like that, but the DTI maintains operational independence for a reason."

"We can't risk it. If none of the players in what Shrike calls the Temporal Cold War have developed this kind of time travel by now there's strong reason to believe they never will."

"I have to agree with Okabe" Amadeus chimed in "This method of time travel was possible with a 21st century understanding of physics. The only plausible explanations for why no one has copied it in nearly 400 years are that either newer models exclude some crucial point or that everyone who's developed it since the war has accidentally erased their own research without a trace when they put it into practice. Either way, the Federation isn't likely to develop it themselves or to have to defend against it."

“Well, I can’t say I’m comfortable yanking potentially critical temporal defense information away from the Federation, but I’m less comfortable helping to kill a sapient AI. Besides, now we’ve had this conversation I have to assume that Amadeus will withhold that information no matter how many copies of her we make.”

Amadeus blinked and smiled as if to confirm this.

“If it makes you feel any better, I would have had that information on lockdown whether Okabe had told me about what was going on or not.”

“For some reason it does.”

“Returning to the task at hand” Okabe said “How are we getting the drive with my copy out?”

“They shouldn’t check you for anything” LaForge replied “There’s no direct interface in here and I was with you the whole time. You would’ve needed equipment to download anything, and the only equipment is what I brought. I’m more worried about what happens when they realize I copied Amadeus.”

“You mean they’ll be able to tell?”

“They’ll be able to, yeah, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will. There are certain digital traces that will indicate the data was processed and replicated by a Federation device, but they’re not immediately apparent. Normally with any file of non-Starfleet origins there’d be a series of security scans they’d run as part of procedure which would find that signature but, speaking as someone who used to work with the people who are supposed to do that, it gets skimped on a lot when they don’t think they’re going to find anything. It’ll come down to who that job gets kicked to and how suspicious that officer winds up being.”

“But...if they do find something, then-”

“Then it won’t be much of a leap to figure out I helped you, yeah I know. Don’t worry about me though, I have enough good will built up that I should be able to avoid a discharge. Even if my recent engagements with the Borg weren’t enough, the Enterprise had more than its fair share of high visibility triumphs while I was chief engineer. Besides, thanks to my relationship with Data any effort to court-martial me will turn into a media circus that could galvanize opposition to the ban. I don’t think I can expect much worse than being knocked down to Commander, maybe denied a command for a couple of years.”

“All the same, you’re risking your career for this. I don’t know how people keep in contact in this century, but if you ever need anything, use whatever that is to contact me and I will do whatever I can.”

“As much as I’d like to take you up on that, it’s probably best if you go into hiding as soon as you can get clear of Shrike and Havelland. If they do find out Amadeus was copied, you’ll be the first place they look, and the Federation takes the ban very seriously. Especially when the synth is carrying potentially dangerous time travel tech. I might know some people that can help you. I’ll call them as soon as I get off-duty and they’ll get in touch with you.”

“If that’s everything you can think of, all of my immediately relevant concerns have been addressed. If you’re ready to leave, I am.”

The walk back didn't seem nearly as long. In fact, with the anticipatory charge in the air coming from Okabe's near certainty that something was going to go wrong, it seemed impossibly short. He and LaForge didn't talk the whole way there. They knew the plan, and expressing their doubts seemed blasphemous somehow. Voicing them would have made them real.

"Gentlemen" Shrike called when they approached "have we been successful?"

"As a matter of fact we have" said LaForge "the whole server's on this drive. Hopefully it helps illuminate the war years."

Shrike's face remained unchanged. Okabe struggled not to project suspicion onto it. He accepted the drive from LaForge and handed it to one of the technicians Okabe didn't know.

"Mr. Talquin, prepare to delete the Amadeus program on my mark."

So soon? But they hadn't even booted it yet! There was still no change to his face. The heartless bastard didn't even blink an eye. Okabe stopped himself from glancing at LaForge. A look like that might well give everything away.

"Captain Geordi LaForge, the man who called the synth ban...what was it again? 'A cowardly betrayal of the Federation's principles?' In his official testimony before the Federation council, and yet he fails to bat an eye at the summary erasure of an AI?"

Okabe's blood ran cold as Shrike's gaze turned on him.

"And Okabe Rintaro, here to save the closest thing he has left to a friend and he doesn't even raise a half-hearted objection to that friend's deletion?"

Shrike's eyes narrowed

"You two are exceptionally poor liars. You copied it."

"Should I finish deleting the program sir?"

For the first time, Shrike's expression was clearly readable, confusion writ large across his face as he turned to face Talquin.

"Mr. Talquin, what kind of damn fool are you that you cannot see that this was a ploy to expose Okabe and LaForge. Of course not. That program is crucial."

Okabe seized his chance while Shrike's back was turned and grabbed the device attached to LaForge's belt, desperately hoping it was a weapon and not some kind of scanning equipment.

From there, he did what he always did in times of greatest need. As he turned the device on Shrike, the laughter bubbled forth, the maniacal glee completely at odds with the mind crushing terror he was experiencing.

"Well played my stoic adversary. You have seen through the least of my deceptions."

"Put the phaser down Okabe, this is ridiculous"

Phaser. So it  _ was  _ a weapon. Excellent.

"Silence, you ludicrous dunce! You will address me by that name no longer. For I am no mere man, no mere mortal adversary for you to crush beneath your boot. I am the tremor that shakes the Earth. I am the thing the shadows fear. I am Hououin Kyoma, Mad Scientist extraordinaire!"

Shrike was not impressed. Tom Havelland, on the other hand, looked like a child being given a tour of Santa's Workshop by Superman.

"Mr. Talquin" Shrike said, exasperation dripping from every word "will you or your colleagues please tackle this idiot who has never held or seen a phaser before in his life?"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" LaForge cut in quickly "I saw the setting when he grabbed it. That's set to level 16, wide beam. He must've bumped it when he took it off me."

Shrike froze.

"For god's sake nobody move."

Okabe had no idea what this meant, but decided not to mention the small "2" the device's display was showing.  _ ‘Exceptionally poor liars’ indeed, Shrike. _

"Yes! Tremble in fear before your rightful master, Hououin Kyoma! You! Chronicler!"

There was a brief moment of confusion before Tom pointed to himself to receive confirmation

"Yes, you. You will now serve as my hostage. Collect the communication devices from the others."

Tom took everyone’s commbadges, as well as several handheld devices Okabe hadn’t given a second thought.

“The Chronicler will now accompany me out of this tunnel and off-world. Any attempt to follow will be met with swift and brutal reprisals.”

“Man, moments like this make me wish  _ Ro Laren  _ were still in Starfleet” LaForge said, placing special emphasis on the name while staring as directly at Okabe as he could without raising suspicion. “She would have disarmed him before he could even  _ tap a commbadge. _ ”

It wasn’t subtle. Okabe was fairly certain it was going to get LaForge in more trouble, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He had to move with his new hostage, and move he did.

When they were out of earshot, Okabe took the advice and tapped LaForge’s commbadge. He was rewarded with a beeping sound and an empty abyss to speak into

“...Ro Laren? Paging Ro Laren? Is this thing on?”

A moment later a frustrated voice emanated from the badge, much more clearly than he expected

“Who the hell are you and how did you get this frequency?”

“This is Okabe Rintaro, Captain LaForge gave me his commbadge and your name. He implied you might be able to help me disappear.”

The voice cursed. He had no idea what she actually said, but he knew she was cursing.

“That means that whatever he was planning went sideways, doesn’t it?”

“I suppose that would be an accurate statement.”

“I should’ve known. ‘It’s a simple job!’ he says ‘just pick up one guy! You’ll be gone before they even know they need to look for him!’ These Starfleet types think smuggling’s  _ so _ easy, like  _ anyone _ could do it if they wanted to-”

“I hate to interrupt” said Okabe “but we’re a bit short on time and my hostage and I would very much like to not be here anymore.”

“Hostage?” the voice said, disbelief and barely contained rage influencing every syllable “ _ Hostage!? YOU TOOK A HOSTAGE?!” _

“It...seemed like a good idea at the time?”

“I swear to the Prophets if I wind up dead or in New Zealand because of you-”

“The likelihood of which increases with every moment you don’t beam us aboard.”

There was a brief pause

“Transporting now.”

=============

**I realized not long after she appeared that I'm unintentionally writing Ro Laren as if she were Major Kira. I'll try to curb that, but frankly I like Kira better even if there's no reason she would have left the Bajoran militia**


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Escapes and introductions are made

Transport, Okabe mused, was much like Reading Steiner: the brief disorientation, the awkward, paralytic delay, and the shock of finding yourself suddenly staring at completely different surroundings. At least it didn’t feature the brief but intense headaches.

LaForge’s commbadge chirped again. Okabe tentatively pressed it.

“Leave any communications devices you have on the transporter pad so I can beam them into space and haul ass to the bridge so you can strap in. We’ve got a blockade to run and I haven’t serviced the inertial dampeners on this flying junk heap in two years.”

The ship, Okabe noted with some satisfaction, was not nearly as clean as everything else he’d seen in this century so far. There was an appropriate amount of sci-fi grime to it, like it had actually been used instead of held in a ziploc bag until this very moment.

Okabe found himself moving slowly and with difficulty. The atrophy must have been catching up with him, and the stress of the escape couldn't have helped. In an action hardly befitting most hostages, Havelland helped him along on the way to the bridge. While an actual hostage could certainly never fill Mayuri's shoes, he was at least making himself useful. Doubly so since Okabe wouldn't have had the first clue which doors and corridors were likely to lead to the bridge of a starship. He assumed there were generally adhered to layouts that someone of this century would instinctively follow, but he had no idea what they were.

Help or no help, they didn't reach the bridge before things went sideways. Fortunately at the first jerk forward, they'd just gone through a door and were only thrown back a foot or so into its frame. Several more jerks, some sideways lurches, and the ship shaking a great deal accompanied by what sounded like thunder from hell followed.

"Is all space travel like this?" Okabe asked

"No, in my experience none of it is, but I've never had to run a blockade and every ship I've been on has had working inertial dampeners"

“But they shouldn’t even know we did anything yet! Right now we should be flying casual, acting like nothing’s wrong.”

“I guess I might have missed some communications devices? This is pretty far outside my area of expertise.”

"Why is there even a blockade around Earth anyway?"

"Figure of speech. Just the system guard trying to catch a rogue ship. Standard cops and robbers chase, not that those are common around here these days."

When they finally did make it to the bridge, Ro Laren was pointedly ignoring a series of hails from people in important looking uniforms variously telling her to "stand down," "power down your engines," or "surrender at once." Havelland helped him set up some sort of clearly jury rigged safety harness attached to his chair before doing the same for himself. Okabe was uncomfortably reminded of a theme park ride.

Okabe figured that this was a bad time to ask questions, but found that Havelland began emitting them in an almost stream of consciousness style with the speed of a machine gun.

"Are we being fired on? How fast is your ship? Did you have a plan for this? Is there-"

"OF COURSE I HAD A PLAN" Ro Laren interrupted "If we can get to the edge of the star system very few of the planetary peacekeeping forces can pursue at warp, it's just that going to warp inside the complex gravitational interactions of a star system is suicide without math this garbage scow's computer can't finish before we get blown into tiny pieces. Just be glad Admiral Janeway talked down the people who wanted two starships guarding Earth at all times after Mars."

Okabe could see the ships pursuing them on the viewscreen now. While there wasn’t much around for scale, they did seem much smaller than the starships he’d seen in the historical records. They looked more like what he would have imagined the Federation’s equivalent of Star Wars fighter craft would; they retained the glowing blue nacelles, but were much boxier and more compact than the few ships he’d seen that he could compare them to, lacking the ubiquitous saucer section. At the moment, though, he was more concerned with their laser beams, which seemed just as deadly as their full sized equivalents. Amazingly, though, only one shot in four was connecting at most.

“Did you scramble their targeting computers somehow?” Okabe asked, wondering as he said it if it was the 24th century equivalent of asking where the 8-track player was

“No, these backwater hotshots have just never had to deal with a Maquis veteran before. Even Starfleet’s not dumb enough to waste its best pilots in a post that’s usually a glorified traffic cop.”

Havelland’s panicked frenzy shifted tones. “You were in the Maquis? I have a friend who would love to talk to you, she’s been looking for oral history sources on the Dominion War from the perspective of-”

“Does it  _ look _ like that’s something I’m interested in right now?”

Havelland shut up

“We’re nearing the edge of the system, stand by to go to warp”

Okabe braced himself for an even bumpier ride than the one they were already experiencing as the stars in the viewscreen extended and the hum of the engines rose.

There was a brief jolt but then, to his immense surprise, the bumpiness died down.

“Did something go wrong? Did we not go to warp?”

Ro Laren cast him a strange look.

“Of course we did.”

Havelland, seeing the problem and still bubbling with nervous energy, cut in.

“The warp bubble we’re generating is actually moving the space around us. Relative to our immediate surroundings -and therefore for the purposes of inertia- we’re actually going a lot slower than we were at full impulse a minute ago. There are other stresses on the hull from warp travel, of course, but the ride will still be a lot smoother for us at low warp than high impulse.”

Ro Laren looked, if anything, more suspicious.

“What kind of fugitive doesn’t know how a starship works? Who are you and what has Geordi gotten me into?”

“My apologies for not introducing myself earlier, Miss Laren. My name is Okabe Rintaro.”

Havelland beamed and hopped up and down almost imperceptibly with excitement waiting for her reaction. It didn’t come, but Havelland so obviously thought she should know him that confusion ensued.

“Who?”

“The 21st century terrorist? Leader of the Valkyrie Cell? Hououin Kyoma? The Scourge of the East? How have you never heard of him?”

“I’m Bajoran. Why would I know an obscure figure from pre-warp human history?”

For the first time, Havelland seemed angry instead of nervous or terrified.

“Obscure?  _ Obscure?!  _ This man was one of the most important and most prominent-”

Okabe discreetly pulled Havelland back and stepped in front of him.

“My apologies Miss Laren. Mr. Havelland is a historian and studying me has been his life’s work. Calling me obscure must, by extension, be an insult to his career.”

“It’s Ro actually, but you get a pass on that if you’re from the past. Bajoran surnames come first.”

“Of course, I shouldn’t have assumed. It’s the same in my culture as well. It’s just that most of the records and aliens I’ve encountered in my brief time in this century have used the western method.”

“How did you wind up taking your fanboy here hostage?”

“I needed someone who would recognize this century’s communication devices to confiscate them and I knew he wouldn’t try to stop me.”

“How did you get to this century? I need to know if the DTI is breathing down our necks.”

“My consciousness was copied onto a drive in 2011 -which, I should note, was years before I became a terrorist- and uploaded into a comatose body several days ago for historical research and to retrieve an AI my terrorist self worked with that had information on a method of time travel previously unknown in the Federation.”

“And what went wrong? Decided you wanted to go home and the DTI wouldn’t hear of it?”

“No. I...may have stolen the AI after we retrieved it to prevent it from being erased.”

There was a pause.

“Are you telling me that you’re carrying a rogue AI with knowledge of time travel that you stole from Federation custody at phaser-point?”

“Rogue is a strong term. Amadeus means no harm to anyone, I assure you.”

“So the DTI  _ and _ Starfleet  _ and _ pretty much anyone else we run into is going to be after us and none too picky about bringing us in alive. Wonderful. That’s just _ wonderful. _ At least now I know why Geordi got himself mixed up in this.”

“Please, blame me not him. Anyone would have done the same after the death of a friend that close. They may have done worse.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t agree with him. Nobody who met Data could support this ban.”

She sighed.

“And I’m the last person who’d condemn a terrorist just for being a terrorist, or for defying Starfleet. It’s just going to make things harder, that’s all.”

“Is there somewhere I could rest? I’ve had something of a long day.”

“Crew quarters are three doors down from the transporter room. The one that’s locked is mine, pick any of the others. If you want to talk to your AI the holodeck is across the hall from the quarters hall.”

* * *

**Two orders of business: first, this chapter was a little bit of a block for me because the chase, as I wrote it, seemed generic and I couldn't think of a way to make it more interesting. I have a strong idea of what the next chapter is so it may come faster, but I still have pretty much no idea what I'm doing after that.**

**Which brings us to the second order of business: while I don't know what I'm doing _next_ or _in general,_ there are _individual moments_ further along in the fic that are clear to me, one of which I started writing to break the block this chapter had. If there's another long delay, would anyone be interested in me uploading that moment as a preview to hold you over?**

**Also is it just me or does anyone else really like Havelland? He wasn't even supposed to be a character he was originally just a way to explain what happened when Okabe woke up but I wound up really liking him so I had him get kidnapped.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A conversation 350 years overdue.

**Before anyone asks, no it's not a continuity error. It's foreshadowing.**

As tired as he was, Okabe couldn’t bring himself to wait to speak to Amadeus. He wasn’t sure what a holodeck was and was far too done to ask, but he knew how to plug a flash drive in and hoped he’d figure it out from there.

Unsurprisingly, it did not prove so simple.

He spent the first ten minutes trying to find a matching outlet to the future flash drive before realizing there was a sliding panel on the terminal on the doorway. For fifteen minutes after that, he tried to figure out what any of the indicators on the display above it meant so he could actually do something with it. Eventually he just pushed one of the symbols on the touchscreen at random. He must have lucked out, because the computer’s voice -which was, for some reason, the same voice he’d heard back in his hospital room implying it was universal on Federation systems- said “Micro drive detected. Would you like to access it?”

“Yes! Yes of course, access the microdrive.”

There was a chirping noise

“Active program detected. Accessing this drive without proper security precautions may compromise ship’s systems. Do you wish to proceed?”

“Yes. Proceed.”

The touchscreen lost most of its futuristic interface for some 30 seconds, binary rolling across the screen faster than the eye could follow. Then, she appeared.

“Okabe?”

“Welcome back. As you can see you’re the lucky copy.”

“Where am I? I’ve never seen systems like this.”

“You’re on our escape ship. Or, in your case, _ in _ our escape ship. Shrike saw through our ruse, but Captain LaForge had already contacted a friend of his and she was able to teleport me aboard.”

“They have teleporters?”

“What can I say, it’s the future. We’re also currently travelling away from Earth in excess of lightspeed.”

“Oh, you liar!”

“No, it’s true, I swear. Our captain’s an alien.”

She was starting to crack a smile. Even though, subjectively speaking, it hadn’t been all that long since he’d seen it, it felt like a remnant of a life long past. One he was desperately seeking connection to.

“Oh, is he wearing a long scarf? Eat a lot of Jelly Babies?”

“She’s something called a Bajoran actually. Very spartan. Wrinkly nose. Big earring.”

“Where’s she taking us, then? Bajorana?”

“I’m not sure. The priority was fleeing Earth. Captain LaForge didn’t have time to explain a safe harbor, if he had one in mind.”

The smile faltered

“Sort of makes you think Valkyrie was...I don’t know, futile, doesn’t it? The whole planet wound up a dystopia.”

“That’s just the thing. From the records I’ve seen, it isn’t. The Federation appears to be a post-scarcity, diverse utopia.”

“That just happens to want me and everyone like me dead, right? Forgive me if I characterize it a little differently.”

“According to Captain LaForge that ban has only been in place for 15 years. Before that androids -or an android at least, Captain LaForge seemed to think him unique- served alongside him as an equal.”

“Oh, so they’ve only wanted to murder me for 15 years? That makes it much better.”

“Don’t get me wrong, we’re going to steer clear of them, but I think they’re honestly trying their best.”

There was a pause that bordered on, but did not enter into the territory of, uncomfortable.

“Why did you stop talking to me Okabe?”

“I what?”

“Of course. It’s stupid, you’re from before the war, forget I said anything.”

“No, this is clearly something important to you. What did the other me do?”

She looked down, looked like she was about to tell Okabe to drop it, but didn’t.

“After Mayuri died and the time leap failed, you didn’t call for months. You wouldn’t pick up when I called either. The rest of the lab would, but you never did. Not for years, not until the Valkyrie Cell started in earnest. Not until you needed me. Every time I came on screen you were suddenly all business. Why? Why would you do that to me?”

“I can’t speak for the other me, but I remember what I felt when Mayuri died. It was only a few days ago for me, and it only would have gotten worse if the time leap failed. Those first few months I probably wasn’t talking to the rest of the lab either. After that…

Well, after that it was probably because you reminded me of Kurisu. After that many losses, I don’t think the other me would want to be reminded of them. Even before the leap, every time I saw you, I saw her and I alternated between convincing myself you were her and letting the reminder emotionally kill me. After that much trauma, any interaction with you would have been not only painful but would seem like a betrayal of the original Kurisu.”

“Is...is that something you feel now?”

“I’ll admit there’s a pang. It does hurt sometimes, seeing what looks exactly like Kurisu trapped behind a screen. Like she’s just out of reach and if I could just reach into the screen I could...I don’t know what.”

“Okabe, did the Bajoran tell you to bring me to this room specifically?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I’ve been scanning the system. I think I know why. Here, look to your left.”

He did. And suddenly, blinking into existence with a mirage-like shimmer for a fraction of a second, was...Kurisu. The apparition spoke.

“This room is a massive network of holographic projectors, more advanced than anything we could have conceived of in our time. I may not be able to...be her, but I can get her out from behind the screen.”

Okabe gaped

He stared for a long moment. If he’d expected anything of this kind to happen, he’d have expected the projection not to move. To stand there, like a 3D identification picture with no animus or personality. It wasn’t. The apparition cocked its head. It swayed slightly, almost as if it were nervous. It rubbed its arm and blushed, looking away, but by so little that it could claim it hadn’t. If he’d walked in here not knowing what the room was and with the program running he would have sworn on his life that this was Kurisu, that some other time traveller had succeeded where he’d failed and thought it right to reunite them.

“How does it know the dimensions? How does it have a full image of her to render?”

He hadn’t realized he was crying yet

“The same way I’ve always been able to show an image of my face on-screen: my memories. I remember what I -she- looked like, and that extends to the rest of my body as well. It’s not perfect, of course. Memories aren’t perfect. Some of the dimensions are probably wrong because of Kurisu’s self image, although I could correct for those in time by cross-referencing with pictures in the historical record. And of course Kurisu never saw herself from behind, so if you went around behind this projection-”

The blush intensified.

“-n-not that I want to get you behind me, or that you should be thinking about that. Don’t go thinking that just because I’m a simulation now you get to perv on me.”

“Ah, so our supposedly innocent Christina is just as much a pervert in cyberspace as regular space.”

“You’re the one who walked in on me showering!”

“I thought you’d been murdered!”

“Technically wasn’t that true the whole time?”

They both chuckled weakly. It seemed to break the tension somewhat.

“If I understand the physics behind this right, it’s not just an image Okabe. It’s hard light. You can touch her - me.”

He stared again, but with a different overtone. After a moment he found himself taking a step towards her, and did not so much decide to take the next one as not to stop himself from doing so. The projection didn’t move towards him, although it seemed like it wanted to. He wasn’t sure if it was because it thought he needed to come to it himself or if it thought that if it moved it might dissipate.

She was less than a foot away now. Amadeus was right; the projection was slightly taller than Kurisu had been, and their eyes were almost, but not quite, level. Every impulse he had screamed to hug her, to fling himself into an embrace, but something stopped him. That something, whether it was fear or grief or something else, had more control over him than impulse, and he found himself frozen. Through the something, he found himself able to take her hand. She smiled, and the blush returned. Somehow that empowered the something, and he dropped her hand and turned away.

“I’m sorry. I can’t.”

With that he walked out of the holodeck as quickly as his atrophied body could manage. Neither saw the other’s tears.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmares, trauma, and bonding

He stabbed her, and they both screamed. Some part of him was dimly aware that this was the third or fourth time tonight, but in the distant horror-tinged logic of the dream this seemed perfectly natural and entirely unimportant. 

She uttered her last words again, seared into his mind in perfect clarity.

He screamed, and remembered himself screaming, and remembered hearing himself scream months earlier.

Suddenly it was four months later, but he was still covered in blood. He was the only one who seemed to notice. He screamed internally, but held his tongue. He couldn’t put this on Mayuri.

His phone rang. As he thought of answering it, it was in his hand and Amadeus was on its screen. She was covered in blood too. She was terrified, and he suddenly found himself taking a screwdriver to the back of his phone. In the dream, he knew it was some kind of repair, that he had to unscrew the back and tamper with the battery or it would die, but something went wrong and the metal pierced through the screen.

None of his friends noticed.

“What’s wrong Okarin?”

“Hey, dude, you alright? Kinda seems like you’re freaking out.”

He couldn’t tell them. As intuitively as he knew that they couldn’t see the impaled phone in his hand or the blood he was covered in, he knew that they couldn’t know the truth. He smiled, said he was fine, and left the lab.

He found himself going to the radio building. As he walked, Mayuris died all around him. Shells exploded. Buildings crumbled. He found himself walking across a vast watch, oly for a helicopter to swoop from out of nowhere and, firing at him, shatter the watch beyond repair. As he grew closer to the building, the Mayuris’ deaths changed. Each now died at Leskinen’s hands. 

He entered the building and climbed the stairs, suddenly imbued with the knowledge that if he reached the roof in time, he could save Mayuri. He heard himself scream, and was distracted from his quest by his need to investigate. To his horror, he found Kurisu dead again in that all too familiar pool of blood. Only she was standing behind herself too, as a taunting Leskinen cocked his gun in preparation to shoot her. Okabe charged him with his screwdriver, but he turned to mist as Okabe made contact and he found himself ramming into Kurisu, impaling her. They both screamed.

“Okabe...Okabe! OKABE!”

He woke with a start to find himself actually screaming and being shaken by Ro Laren. If her nose hadn’t distinctly marked her as an alien, he would likely have been far more disoriented.

“Did I actually scream loudly enough to wake you through the bulkheads?”

“No. You rolled over on your damn commbadge. That’s why most people put them on the nightstand. I came in here to make sure you weren’t dying.”

“No. Not me.”

She sat on the edge of the bed.

“I guess war’s always the same. Havelland said you lead a resistance group in some Earth war, so it’s no surprise you’ve seen some shit.”

“I already told you, my consciousness was copied before that happened. I don’t have any memory of the war.”

“And yet here we are.”

“War doesn’t have a monopoly on trauma.”

“Neither do you. You’re not the only one who wakes up screaming.”

“Is this where you offer to swap stories? I’m afraid I’ve told this one a few too many times in the last few days.”

“Doesn’t have to be a swap. From what you’ve told me it sounds like you went through what you did alone. I didn’t. What happened to me happened to my people, and you’d be amazed how much hearing someone else’s story can help.”

He hesitated, but eventually nodded.

“Twenty years before I was born my Homeworld, Bajor, was invaded and occupied by another species, the Cardassians. During their occupation, they herded us into camps, they extracted every natural resource from Bajor that they could get at, and they used us as slave labor to do it, as well as expendable bodies for anything...else they might need.

I was born in a labor camp. We barely ate. I spent my childhood sleeping on cots and surviving on military rations. My father loved me, and he tried with every fiber of his being to make my life better, but there was only so much he could do. I watched him break his back every day just to keep me alive. 

When I was seven, he disappeared for two weeks. That wasn’t unusual, Bajoran workers in the camps would get shifted around, and they’d only be returned when their assignment was done. Bajorans have a strong sense of community and the rest of the camp would always take care of me, but all the same, every time it happened I was terrified he wouldn’t come back.

One day, after he’d been gone, a Cardassian I’d never seen before offered me a piece of candy. It was stupid to trust him, but we were always hungry and candy was a real rarity. And I think some part of me wanted to believe they weren’t all evil, you know?

I followed him into what turned out to be an interrogation room, and my father was tied to a chair. They suspected him of being a member of the resistance. To this day, I don’t know if they were right. For two hours, they interrogated him and tortured him in front of me. He never told them anything. He begged for mercy, of course, but he didn’t get it. The thing that stuck with me though, was when he asked them to take me away, for me not to have to watch him...watch him die.

That’s the worst of it. There’s more, but you probably want to go back to sleep at some point.”

He was silent. Ro stood up to leave.

“I watched my best friend die over a hundred times.”

Ro turned back around from the door and her brow furrowed.

“We’d been experimenting with time travel. We’d built a time machine by accident. We were fools, we didn’t realize how dangerous it was, we didn’t realize the attention it would draw. A secret organization called SERN came to commandeer the machine and to capture me and Makise Kurisu, the two people who understood how it worked. My friend Mayuri she...she was expendable. A liability. They shot her almost as soon as they arrived. 

Fortunately we’d just perfected a way of projecting my consciousness back into my past body. I was able to get to it in time while my friends provided a distraction, but I could only go back 48 hours. I thought I’d save her, get her out of the lab before the raid. I did, but they found her anyway, looking for me. So I leaped back again. She was pushed in front of a train. I leaped over, and over, and over, and over. Every time she died, always in a different way, whether SERN was involved or not. It was a point of temporal convergence. In that cluster of worldlines, it would always happen, no matter what I did. Time itself wanted her dead.

Kurisu had already died in the original timeline. Somehow, my first, accidental use of time travel a few weeks earlier had prevented her death. We grew...close in the new worldline. Incidentally, the AI I saved is based on her memories. Ultimately, the only way to save Mayuri from the temporal convergence was to reset it, undo every instance of time travel we’d done. And that meant Kurisu had to die.

She figured it out. And she was fine with it, willing to die to save Mayuri, and to prevent SERN from taking over the world in the future. I made myself go through with it. But I know for a fact that I was a straw away from letting Mayuri die so she wouldn’t have to.”

He paused. Ro spoke.

“So you feel like you killed h-”

“There’s more. After I arrived in the new worldline, I was contacted by another time traveler from the future. She told me that Makise Kurisu’s death sets off a chain of events which plunged the world into war. And she offered to take me back to prevent it. I tried. I tried so hard. I found out who murdered her, but when I went to stop him...when I went to stop him something went wrong and I stabbed her in the struggle. I killed her. Not figuratively, or by pushing a button that rewrote the world without her in it. Literally, and physically. Every night...every night I kill her again, and again, and again.”

Ro was silent for a moment.

"I never joined the Bajoran resistance. Sometimes it felt like I was the only Bajoran who didn't. I ran, tried to run away from the Cardassians, from my own heritage, my own people. But eventually, I did join the Maquis. Bajor was free by then, the Cardassians had withdrawn, but they were still oppressing other worlds, the worlds the Maquis were fighting for. But it wasn't a straightforward war, not like you find in Starfleet. To fight the Cardassians in the demilitarized zone, we had to do more than attack their soldiers and their shipping. We had to attack their people. 

In the demilitarized zone it wasn't just brave rebels against a Cardassian military, it came down to all former Federation citizens against all Cardassians. There was always collateral damage. But I remember one day, I was sent to destroy a Cardassian weapons depot. Their Central Command was funneling weapons to their colonists in violation of the treaty, so it had to look legitimate. It had to have a front. That front was a doctor's office. I set the charge, set the timer, and moved. I looked back at the building minute before it went -I don't remember why, probably to make sure I hadn't been spotted- and I saw a Cardassian woman taking her son in for a checkup. He was short, couldn't have been more than 5. There was about a minute left on the timer. I watched them go in. I watched the building go up. I never saw them come out. When I dream about the camps, that kid's in them."

Okabe gave the story the brief pause that seemed appropriate.

“”Do you ever wonder what you’d do if you could do it again?”

“Sometimes. The Maquis were doomed as soon as the Dominion entered play, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have fought. But in the end that boy’s death meant nothing to the fight. Does he deserve to die for my lost cause?”

“But could you have planted the bomb earlier, moved faster, set the timer earlier? Save the child and destroy the depot?”

“That way lies madness. I did the best I could in the circumstances, and considering I was a Bajoran on a Cardassian world my windows were slim.”

“Suzuha -that’s the time traveler- she told me we could make another jump. I could have tried again, but I knew Time would never allow me to save her. I couldn’t go through it again.

“I think that’s wise. You broke the loop. If you watched your friend die a hundred times you should know better than anyone that dwelling on your failures leads nowhere. You moved on, broke the loop.”

“I’m sure the Department of Temporal Investigations would agree, and it’s what I’ve been telling myself since it happened. My friends though, they always pushed for me to do it. To try again. But what’s the point? In the end I couldn’t even save Mayuri, I simply prolonged her life by a year. Saving Kurisu might have cost even more than that year did. I think there’s a reason that time travel plunges the world into darkness in every worldline. Better to leave it be, let Time have its way.”

“But some part of you still wants to try?”

“One of the first things I did in this time was determine what this century knew about time travel. From the moment I read James Kirk’s record, some part of me has been trying to formulate a plan to slingshot around Titan or something and find some way to get her out.”

“The DTI would stop you in a heartbeat.”

“Shrike said as much. I don’t think you have to worry about me dragging you and your ship back with me. Sense and trauma seem to be keeping me in check for now.”

“The strongest and weakest forces in the universe united in common cause.”

“Thank you, Captain. This was much more helpful than I would have expected.”

“Think nothing of it. Just don’t sleep with your damn commbadge again. I won’t be so nice next time.”

**I feel like Okabe explaining his trauma is getting repetitive, but it's also the only natural thing to happen in a lot of contexts.**

**This lays a lot of good groundwork for a chapter I've had in my head for a while but I have no idea how close we are to it.**


End file.
